


The Art of Seeing What's There

by Starfurious



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss, The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Catalina Trastamara, Catherine of Aragon is a good mom, Henry was a dick, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Modern AU, Nothing graphic but I thought I should warn y'all, She left his ass, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:46:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23444953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starfurious/pseuds/Starfurious
Summary: It's 2020, and divorce is no longer a massive scandal that needs the Pope's approval, so strong, highly intelligent women with young children leave their emotionally and physically abusive husbands. Then they help other women. Catalina finds Kitty just when things are starting to get bad for her.
Comments: 28
Kudos: 97





	1. Alley Kat

Catalina had heard a dull crash as the eager young priest bid her good morning, helplessly mangling her family name, before he’d turned back into the church. It had sounded like trash being knocked over in the alley and she’d dismissed it as probably a street cat. Nothing to worry about, she’d thought, smiling down at her daughter, about to ask the little girl what she wanted to do with the rest of their Sunday. Then she’d heard something else. Cats, as far as she was aware, didn’t cry. 

It probably would have been safer, even at 10 AM on a bright spring morning, to just walk past, especially since she had Maria with her. There was someone in that alley, though, and she knew they were hurting, and she couldn’t, wouldn’t ignore it. After the pain of the last two years of her own life her heart wouldn’t let her ignore someone else’s suffering. So she squared her shoulders and took her daughter’s hand, careful to keep herself between her child and whatever they were about to find, Then stepped off the street into the shadows. What she saw curled up between the empty cardboard boxes and the overflowing dumpster made her heart ache.

The girl couldn’t have been more than thirteen. She was dressed in a dirty, but well made, school uniform, and trembling with either cold or fear. Her ratty pink-streaked hair tangled around her face and she stared straight ahead at the wall in front of her, not even acknowledging Catalina’s presence as she approached. When she crouched down and looked into the girl’s wide dark eyes she recognised something she’d seen in the mirror for far too long. Something that had been put there by someone this girl was supposed to trust. “Someone hurt you, querida.” She whispered, and when the girl blinked, she continued softly “You don’t have to tell me, I know it too well. Let me buy you some breakfast.”

The girl shook her head and stood up, looking around wildly for somewhere to bolt to. Catalina sighed, but stayed crouched against the cold brick. “We’ll go to a café, lots of people there” she shrugged out of her warm woolen coat and held it out towards the frightened teenager “You can wear this over your clothes, they will all think you are there with Maria, and you don’t have to say anything, just eat,” 

The girl’s eyes darted towards Catalina’s daughter, who stood quietly behind her mother, then to Catalina’s relief she nodded, and took the coat “Okay” 

Maria’s smile was a little uncertain, but she understood enough not to ask questions. “We can get pancakes.” She suggested. 

Her mother nodded and rose slowly to her feet, being careful not to spook the other girl. When she was standing, she leaned over and affectionately kissed the top of Maria’s head. “We can,” she said stroking one hand reassuringly through the dark red hair in front of her. Catalina noticed there were tears in the teenager’s eyes, as she watched them, but didn’t draw attention to them. “Do you like pancakes?” she asked instead.

The teenager nodded “Yes,” she said quietly. Then a pause, and a breath, and even more hesitantly “My name’s Kitty,”

Catalina smiled at her warmly “Nice to meet you, Kitty. You can call me Lina, and this is Maria.”

“Some people call me Mary, though,” chimed in the younger girl. “You can choose.”

Kitty found herself smiling a little at that. It felt like the first thing anyone had let her choose in a very long time.


	2. Soul Food

The pancakes were excellent. They were fluffy and sweet, and came with chocolate and pieces of banana, and when she had finished Lina had ordered her another one without being asked, almost as if she’d already known that Kitty hadn’t eaten anything for nearly three days. The best thing about the pancakes, though was that they’d let her eat them in silence, and it hadn’t felt weird. Mary had asked her to pass the sugar, which had been sitting on her side of their table, and smiled at her when she’d pushed it over without speaking, but otherwise they’d seemed happy to be quiet. Even after the plates had been cleared they’d stayed sitting in comfortable silence, and so she’d stayed with them, hands wrapped around her tea cup soaking up its heat, her eyes flicking between the dark liquid, the floor beside the table, and the door. 

She was still nervous she realised, but she wasn’t afraid of these people. It was nice to not be afraid. Mary was just a kid of course, maybe eight or nine and slight with it, and her mother was reserved, but somehow also warm, and small enough that Kitty figured she could probably push her out of the way if she really wanted to. That had been surprising actually, when she’d stood up in that alley, that she’d barely been any taller than Kitty, even in killer 4-inch heels.

“I like your shoes,” Kitty blurted suddenly. She’d been staring at them off and on, and they really were fantastic; expensive-looking patent leather the colour of red wine, with narrow heels and cutaway sides that exposed the arches of Lina’s delicate feet. That last thought had just made the words come flying out of her mouth before she could stop them.

“Thank you,” the reply was soft, but when Kitty risked a glance up at the woman’s gold-flecked blue eyes, she seemed to be trying not to laugh, although not at Kitty. “I like them too. Of course, if I wasn’t wearing them I’d be so short I’d probably get trampled,” she said, and smiled.

Kitty doubted that statement, somehow, Catalina had the kind of presence that didn’t need height to make you notice her, but hearing her say it made Kitty smile back. 

Mary giggled, and leaned over slightly in her chair to rest her head against her mother’s arm. “My father was very tall,” she said.

There were a few things to notice about that, thought Kitty. First she’d said ‘father’ instead of ‘dad’, and her tone was strangely serious after the little burst of laughter, then it had been ‘was’, and not ‘is’. “He’s dead?” she asked, curious despite herself, and not realising what a tactless thing that was to say to a kid if the answer was yes until it was too late. Fortunately no one expected teenagers to be tactful, and Mary didn’t seem upset by it, so she was probably in the clear. At least, she thought she was before Lina took a slow breath, and answered.

“Not dead,” she said, “Just gone from our lives. And Maria is right; he’s a big man, although not always a nice one.”

“He tried to stop Mama bringing me with her.” Mary explained, but from the way her mother’s hands clenched around the handle of her coffee cup, so tight that her knuckles went white, and the second slow breath she took, Kitty got the impression that there had been more to the ‘not always a nice man’ than just that.

“Shit,” whispered the teenager, looking up at Lina’s shuttered eyes. “I’m sorry,” No wonder this woman had seemed to understand what was going on without ever asking.

Catalina shrugged, and Kitty watched her force herself to smile brightly before she turned to her daughter and say “It’s in the past. What do you want to do this afternoon, mija?” 

“The park. Kitty can come, and we can go on the monkey bars.”

“If she wants to.” Lina told the girl gently, then looked back at Kitty “You would be welcome, but you can say no. I know a safe place you can get a shower, and a change of clothes, if you’d rather. “ and when Kitty looked uncertain, added “It is walking distance from here, even in these shoes.”

Kitty thought that maybe she would have been okay getting into a car with Lina and Mary, but she was still relieved that she didn’t have to find out “A shower sounds good, actually,” she said. Maybe she could wash away more than just the dirt on her skin.

Mary was smiling again. If anything, she looked more excited about this safe place than she had about the monkey bars. “We’re going to the New House?” She asked her mother “Will Anna be there?”

“Perhaps,” Faced with her daughter’s enthusiasm, Lina’s smile relaxed into something much more genuine “We shall find out, I think.”

When she reached across the table to rest her fingers on the back of Kitty’s hand, the teenager surprised herself by not pulling away, and actually holding Lina’s gaze for a few moments as she nodded her agreement.

“We’ll go then,” said Lina “But only come with us if you want to. You can walk away at any time.”

“Okay,” said Kitty, and maybe, for now at least, she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was both easier and more difficult to write than I was expecting, if that makes any sense at all, but I think it came out alright in the end.


	3. Safety in Hallways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get more distressing for Kitty, before they get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although no graphic details are discussed, if any part of this story is likely to trigger past trauma, I think it would be this one. It is also the part that I am most nervous about posting, so if you make it to the end, I'd really like to hear your thoughts about how I've presented things here. I'm not really sure if I managed to find that magic balancing point between too much, and not enough, so if you have suggestions for modifications, or improvements, please let me know!
> 
> I also apologise for the Google Spanish. My own is awful. I had 6 lessons in high school, a very long time ago!

They walked for about 15 minutes before they came to an unremarkable house at the end of a leafy cul-de-sac. There was nothing about it that could help single it out from its neighbours, not even a sign on the gate. It had the same four windows facing the street that the other houses had, and the same battered wooden door, complete with the three stubborn iron numbers clinging to it only by rust and prayer. Nice and normal. You wouldn’t be able to tell what it was, unless you knew, and the people inside would be safe from anyone walking past noticing it at helpfully passing on the information. But somehow Catalina had known it was here, was familiar enough with her ‘safe place’ that she could bring a stranger here and be sure of a welcome. And Mary’s father was not a nice man. It was comforting, in an horrific kind of way, for Kitty to realise that he wasn’t the only person to need this kind of help. That this calm, patient woman with the cultured voice and the slow smile could have had a similar experience to her and come out the other side alive and caring, and raising a happy confident little girl who didn’t seem to be any different from any other eight year old Kitty had ever seen, apart from maybe being a little more attached to her mother than some children were. 

When they reached the door, Lina knocked instead of ringing the bell, the stepped back to wait for it to be answered, rubbing her hands up and down the sleeves of her dress to stave off the chill she’d barely been able to feel until they’d stopped moving. Kitty notices her shivering at about the same time that Mary squeezes herself around her mother and pulls the cold hands to her mouth with her smaller ones, blowing warm breath across them and smiling. 

“Mama, te sientes como hielo!” she says, and Kitty doesn’t know what it means, only that Mary is frowning and almost laughing as she speaks.

Lina just wraps her arms around her daughter, and holds her close, whispering something equally foreign in response. Then she turns her head to look back at Kitty, who is starting to feel guilty standing behind them in the woman’s warm coat while she freezes on the doorstep and smiles reassuringly. “I’m okay,” she repeats in English for Kitty’s benefit “We’re almost inside.” 

The teenager starts to form an apology anyway, but she doesn’t get the chance to say anything before the door is flung open and they’re all faced with a broad, stern looking girl. She was probably only a couple of years older than Kitty but looked like she’d be capable of holding that doorway against anyone at all if she wanted to anyway. Fortunately, though, the moment her hard, grey gaze drops onto Lina and Mary her hostile expression morphs into a big grin.

“Hello, Ms T. You look cold.”

“I see that the community service is doing a lot to improve your manners, Anna.” The older woman replied, letting her merry eyes and the warmth of her tone completely undercut the reproach in her words “Perhaps you can invite us in to warm up?”

“Sure thing!” said the girl, stepping back to allow them access to the house “and you can blame my lawyer for the community service. Maybe you know her? Short, pushy, Spanish… I’m sure I’d be learning much better manners in Juvenile Detention!”

“I’ll remember that next time you punch a police officer. Where is Jane?”

“Living room. You know the way.”

“Thanks,”

Kitty felt a bit strange as she realised that Lina might be just a lawyer. It wasn’t betrayal, exactly, that she was feeling but maybe she was disappointed. She’d liked Lina and thought she might be starting to trust her, and it had become important somehow that this woman she’d just met understood her. That she was like her. And now it might just be second-hand empathy. 

It made her want to cry, or scream, or just sit down in the hallway and never move again because it wasn’t fair, that she didn’t know anything again just when she thought she might be okay, and it wasn’t fair because Lina hadn’t DONE anything, and that made feeling like this feel even worse. But she still felt safer with her than with anyone else she’d met since she’d walked into that music lesson 3 days ago. And it wasn’t fair, because now, suddenly she didn’t want to. And damn Anna for screwing things up. And damn Lina for being perfect and kind and not being broken inside exactly like her! It wasn’t FAIR. 

Her heart hammered, and her stomach clenched. She looked around wildly for somewhere to go but the door was closed. Her lungs were tight, and she couldn’t breathe. Then her stomach let go and she was sick. Two portions of pancakes with bananas and chocolate, and all the kindness she’d been shown that morning splattered across the tiled hallway of a house she’d never been to before. She couldn’t stop, and she still couldn’t breathe. The tiles were spinning, and her knees trembled and for just a moment she was falling. Then strong hands on her arms holding her up, and gentle fingers tilting her chin up, opening her airway and lifting her eyes to Lina’s calm face. 

“Listen to my voice, querida. You’re not going to fall.” She said, still kind and unhurried, but firm enough that she drew all of Kitty’s attention, “Breathe. Slowly now, in and out”

“I” Kitty was shaking her head, still dragging in rapid, shallow draughts of air “I can’t”

“You can. In… and out.... In… and out”

And after a while, Kitty’s breathing started to slow to the pace of Lina’s words.

“In… and out… Good,”

The darkness started to retreat from her vision, and her chest relaxed, and she started to breathe normally again.

“In…and out… That’s… it” 

They moved her to the stairs, and Lina sat next to her on the narrow step. She was a warm, steady presence against Kitty’s side, so close that there was no way the teenager couldn’t be aware of her there, but she was quiet again. Waiting for Kitty to be ready to talk. Or not, if she wanted. Even though Anna had said Lina was pushy, Kitty felt that she could choose what she wanted, and that would be okay. She looked around, and noticed they were alone. Even Mary and who'sever hands they had been holding her up had disappeared. 

“Where did they go?” Kitty asked, hesitant, and somewhat surprised by the roughness of her own voice, and the way her throat hurt when she spoke.

Lina smiled “I don’t know.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“You had a panic attack. How do you feel now?”

Kitty shrugged and looked down at her hands. “Empty,” Then her eyes snapped up to Catalina’s accusingly “You don’t understand. You’re just a lawyer.” 

The Lawyer sighed, and she twisted slightly where she sat, so she could rest her head back against the banister “I think I might,” she whispered. 

“No,” Kitty shook her head. “You’re kind, and perfect, and you’re just a lawyer. You don’t know what he made me do.” She was crying, but now she’d started talking, she couldn’t seem to stop. It didn’t even matter that Lina couldn’t really understand what she’d been through anymore. “You can’t understand what it felt like when he touched me.”

“I wish I could stop you hurting, Kitty. I wish nobody had to know what it feels like to hurt like this. I want you to be safe,”

“Why?” she asked, somewhere between tears and anger “Why do you care?”

“Because you deserve to be safe, Kitty, and happy if you can be.” came the soft reply.

“What if I can’t? What if I always feel like this?”

There were sympathetic tears in Catalina’s eyes, and even though she was dreading the answer she knew was coming, she asked “How do you feel now?”

Kitty couldn’t look at her, but she forced herself to whisper the truth, praying that she could trust this woman with this “Alone. Scared and ashamed, and alone”

“You’re safe in this house. You did nothing wrong. And I’m here, aren’t I?”

There were tears running freely down both their faces now, and Kitty still couldn’t look at her companion, but she shifted closer and turned herself into Lina’s shoulder. “But you’re just a lawyer, and I thought you knew what it was like,”

Catalina sighed, and wrapped her arms around the girl. “I still might know,” she admitted, so quietly that Kitty almost didn’t hear her.

“Did Mary’s father hurt you?”

“Yes. And I wasn’t as brave as you. I didn’t leave after the first time.”

“When did you leave?”

“Mary saw him hurting me. I can still remember her screaming at him to stop. He didn’t listen, but we left that night.” She wasn’t sure she should really be answering Kitty’s questions. The girl was only thirteen, and she’d just been through something similarly traumatic from what little she’d said, but it seemed to matter to her that Catalina knew, first hand, what it was like to be hurt this way. She couldn’t lie to her.

But Kitty seemed oddly calm, now that they weren’t talking about her own experience. “Is that why Mary holds you so much?”

“Perhaps,”

Then something else occurred to the girl. “You think I’m brave?”

“I do,” Catalina turned, and kissed the top of Kitty’s blond head, just like the teenager had seen her do to Mary outside the church. “Very brave”

Kitty smiled “So are you.”

They sat together on that step for a long time, until Mary returned with a slim blonde woman carrying a mop and bucket in tow. 

“Are you okay out here?” asked the woman.

“I think we will be, Jane. Thank you,” said Catalina, and Kitty thought she might be right.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first departure from science fiction, and the first thing I've written for ages, so it would be great to hear what you think. I've got a few ideas about how to continue this, if anyone's interested, although I'm not sure if or how I'm going to include the other Queens yet. And yes, I know Mary was older than Katherine Howard, but my head cannon for them here has messed around with some of their ages. 
> 
> Also, I think I should note that I read both Cynicalrainbows' Next Best Thing, and thinlizzy2's All I Wanna Do, and their fantastic writing inspired me to attempt this. I hope nothing of theirs leaked through my fingers into here, and that what I've ended up with is enough of a variation on their themes. Eeek.


End file.
